How cold was it? The corn knows.

Erick Larson, Mississippi Extension Grain Specialist, points out in his Grain Crops Update newsletter this week that growing DD-50 (GDD-50) accumulation since March 1 have run 30% below the norm at the Stoneville weather state. That goes a long way toward explaining a lot of the poor stands and sickly corn across the state.

"Corn germination and growth generally cease at temperatures of 50 degrees F or lower," he noted in a section on slow germination and crop development this spring. "Cold periods combined with (soil moisture) saturation have contributed to considerable corn stand failure associated with early plantings this season. Weather records throughout the south Delta show two separate 5- to 6-day periods with virtually zero GDD 50s immediately preceding and subsequent to March 5‐10, when considerable corn acreage was planted."

Rain and cold delayed corn planting in north Mississippi to the point that some growers are just now able to start.

In Tennessee the weather also has put corn planting on hold, and the remaining corn to be planted is mostly in bottoms, according to Chris Main, the state's Extension wheat and cotton specialist.

"It will take a while for that soil to dry up, and after next week nobody needs to be planting corn in Tennessee," he said. "Soybean prices could pull some of that land into beans, but I think a lot of the soybean ground is already dedicated, so some of the last fields meant for corn might go to cotton."

Main says the state's cotton acreage could run 310,000 to 320,000 acres this year, compared to 380,000 last year. But depending on how much of the late corn is finally planted, the final figure might approach 330,000, he said. "I don't see it going above 345,000," he added.

-- Owen Taylor

More cotton in at least one area

Ernie Flint, Extension Area Agronomist in central Mississippi, expects maybe a small increase in cotton acreage in his counties this year. Ernie covers mainly the hills but also has some Delta land in his territory.

"Cotton acreage will increase a little in some localities; but overall I expect that we will only see a slight increase from last year," he wrote in this month's central Mississippi Field Crops Newsletter. "All things considered, that’s good news since at one time we thought we might see another big drop below last year’s 360K acres in Mississippi. A drop could still be in the cards; but at the moment I believe we may see a little gain over last year as the result of lower prices for corn and soybeans, lower wheat acreage, and high basis charges for grains."

To read Ernie's full report, click here.

-- Owen Taylor

Rice seed treatments: Icon alternatives still mostly caught in regulatory limbo

Extension workers in rice states continue to scramble for a replacement for Icon, a rice seed treatment pulled from the market a couple of years ago after environmental concerns came to light. The product was extremely effective for the control of lespediza worms (aka grape colaspis), and its loss was sorely felt by producers in areas -- like the Grand Prairie of Arkansas -- where the pest can cause significant stand and yield loss in some fields.

At least 3 new products are in the wings, and some states have had better luck in gaining some form of registration than others.

In a report in the current issue of Arkansas Rice, "obtaining registration of these products by the
EPA is a process that has been slow and rocky," says Gus Lorenz, the state's Extension IPM Coordinator.

Lorenz details progress on trying to gain more rice seed treatment options for the state and gives an overview on the 3 products on the table.

Click here to download the report.

-- Owen Taylor

Buzz: More on late corn planting.

As we reported in Monday's AgFax: Southern Grain, much of the South is way, way behind on corn planting. That's also the buzz on our favorite ag forum, the non-commercial New Ag Talk.

Here's a link to the on-going thread.

The question remains: how much more of this corn ground will be planted, and how much will slip into cotton, beans or something else?

Any comments?

-- Owen Taylor

The News Isn't All Bad - Read the Summary

The news these days is hard to listen to, hard to read and most days it's hard to stomach. But there is one thing you need to read, and it's all about you.

You may have noticed that we posted the 30 page report The 2008/2009 World Economic Crisis - What it Means for Agriculture yesterday. Did I hear you snoring?

So, who has time to read the whole 30 pages? We're not sure, and that's why today we posted the authors' 3 page summary in our news section Summary: What the 2008/09 Economic Crisis Means for Agriculture

We even broke the summary up into easily digestible topics. And, who knows you might find time to sit down and read the whole thing -- and stay awake. Remember, if I had said 3 pages at the beginning instead of 30 then you would have thought that was too much, right?

And, yes, to answer your question, the summary does note a few positive points:

• The projected decline in farm income in 2009 is not expected to have much effect on national agricultural land values.
• ...producers will benefit from lower input costs implied by reduced energy and fuel prices. This report projects that in 2009, the fuel and energy-related input costs faced by U.S. farmers could decline by 30 percent, returning costs to the levels of 2006.
• Macroeconomic forecasters, such as Global Insight and EIU, predict that the U.S. and world economies should stabilize in 2010 and then resume growth in 2011 near the relatively high rates of the early 2000s.
• ...reference analysis projects that by 2013, U.S. net farm income could rise to $83 billion, though agricultural exports are projected to be only $93 billion, largely unchanged from the projected 2009 value of $96 billion because of the higher value of the dollar.
• Economic growth would partially reverse the effects of the crisis and thereby help producers of corn and other biofuel feedstock crops.
• Second possible scenario - the weaker dollar relative to the reference case will strengthen U.S. farmers’ competitiveness on world markets. With a weaker dollar, projected net farm income will increase by 19 percent to $106 billion in 2013 and to $118 billion in 2017, while agricultural exports will rise to $120 billion in 2013 and $134 billion in 2017.

Thanks for reading.
Debra